#325 Anniversary.
2 years ago today, I was in Oxford on the coldest day I can remember. I got a new last name and my parents got another son. This is how it happened:
My grandparents couldn’t be there, so I carried them with me inside my grandmother’s heart-shaped locket.
This morning, I woke up at 6:50 because I felt Ben get up and tiptoe out of the bedroom. I thought he might be up to something, since it was even a little too early for his morning workout. I couldn’t go back to sleep, quietly anticipating what he was up to. Instead, I decided to stay in bed and write him a letter, because it’s been a while since I wrote him. When I was finished, I took a quick shower, came into the living room and found this:
The traditional second anniversary gift is cotton, so he made our living room into a ‘cotton house’ in a nod to one of our favorite movies, The Holiday:
He so loves to surprise me. 
He found this Christmas cookie cutter set and thought I would like them. I’m going to use them to make pretty pie crusts.
He wrapped every gift with cotton.
Inside this pillowcase wrapping was a gift wrapped box from J. Crew. The note reads: A little more cotton for the sweetest girl in the world. Thank you so much for the best two years of my life.
Inside was a sweet cotton blouse and a cozy, woolly cardigan.
Inside was a sweet cotton blouse and a cozy, woolly cardigan.
Last year he started a tradition, in which he plans to make a book each year for our anniversary that documents the biggest things that happened every month. He makes them from paper, cotton ticking stripe fabric and thread. The last sentence of every month’s entry says “I love you.” These books are absolutely my most precious gifts, made with love and memory.
He made breakfast! Eggs and bacon for him, strawberry toaster strudels for me.
Then it was time to give him his present. He read his letter first.
Then opened up his gift, a new Patagonia coat for our anniversary trip to New York next week.
A bouquet of cotton flowers in pretty vintage fabrics, custom-made by our friend Dawn of Hello Dearie. He remembered that I commented on how beautiful the fabrics she used on one of her owl pillows was weeks ago, and asked her to use that.
And his thoughtfulness was more than I could bear. I got teary-eyed and felt overwhelmed with how much love one person can give and one person can feel. We sat together at our little dinner table and had our breakfast, and that’s how today began.
Then as we were going into the kitchen for our breakfast, he dug around the mountains of blankets and pillows to give me one last thing.
A bouquet of cotton flowers in pretty vintage fabrics, custom-made by our friend Dawn of Hello Dearie. He remembered that I commented on how beautiful the fabrics she used on one of her owl pillows was weeks ago, and asked her to use that.
And his thoughtfulness was more than I could bear. I got teary-eyed and felt overwhelmed with how much love one person can give and one person can feel. We sat together at our little dinner table and had our breakfast, and that’s how today began.
I’m not sure what the rest of the day will hold, but I will be too busy celebrating to blog about it later today. Happy Monday, sweet friends.
Happy Monday, sweet friends. 
